Children and adults enjoy a variety of toy figures, such as action figures and dolls, which can be manipulated to simulate real life and fantastical activities, and assume natural and supernatural poses and positions. Hopefully, these toy figures stimulate the imaginations of children by providing a variety of play options.
One way of increasing the available play options is to provide toy figures capable of realistic movements. The types of movements that may typically be considered more realistic tend to involve multiple body elements moving in a coordinated fashion. Unfortunately, it can be difficult for a child, even an older child, to coordinate the movement of multiple activating members so that the overall movement of the toy figure appears realistic. It is often preferable, particularly for younger children, for a toy figure to have a single activating member that then activates the coordinated movement of multiple body elements.
Examples of toy figures that are capable of activatable movement of body elements may be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,137,371, 2,648,161, 2,727,334, 3,147,566, 3,242,611, 3,250,037, 3,295,253, 3,475,853, 3,494,068, 3,648,405, 3,700,384, 3,724,125, 3,851,418, 4,003,158, 4,217,726, 4,141,176, 4,244,138, 4,356,928, 4,560,362, 4,578,045, 4,579,542, 4,596,532, 4,601,672, 4,605,382, 4,608,026, 4,623,318, 4,968,280, 5,651,717, 6,012,962, 6,022,263, and 6,152,799; and in U.S. Patent Publications US20100093254, and US20110130070. The complete disclosures of the above patents and patent applications are herein incorporated by reference for all purposes.